William Spratling sterling tulip pin with amethyst

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William Spratling sterling Bird pin with amethyst 20.9 grams, other measurements in pics. Stone intact and structurally sound with what … Read more William Spratling sterling Bird pin with amethyst 20.9 grams, other measurements in pics. Stone intact and structurally sound with what appears to be natural fissures.

Spratling, an architect and artist who taught at Tulane University in New Orleans, came to Mexico in the late 1920s and settled in the city of Taxco. Having developed an interest in Mesoamerican archaeology and culture from his colleagues at Tulane, he traveled to Mexico for several summers lecturing and exploring. He sought out remote villages in the state of Guerrero, 110 miles from Mexico City, where in some places Nahuatl, the Aztec language, was spoken. Spratling collected artifacts and contemporary indigenous crafts. Spratling made a fortune manufacturing and designing silver, but his true life's work was to conserve, redeem, and interpret the ancient culture of his adopted country. He explained for North American audiences the paintings of Mexico's modern masters and earned distinction as a learned and early collector of pre-Columbian art. Spratling and his workshop gradually became a visible and culturally attractive link between a steady stream of notable American visitors and the country they wanted to see and experience. Spratling had the rare good fortune to witness his own reputation -- as one of the most admired Americans in Mexico -- assume legendary status before his death. William Spratling, His Life and Art vividly reconstructs this richly diverse life whose unique aesthetic legacy is but a part of its larger cultural achievement of profoundly influencing Americans' attitudes toward a civilization different from their own. See less